


The Case of the Substituted Horse

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Community: holmes_minor, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:03:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6608254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mini casefic</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Case of the Substituted Horse

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's Holmes Minor's community picture prompt challenge: [Pictures Here](http://holmes-minor.livejournal.com/3436.html)

  
Having seen Holmes depart in the outfit he wore when talking to ostlers I thought no more about it, other than to hope Holmes did not return smelling strongly of horse.  Our rooms had only just recovered from Mrs Hudson’s latest assault when she deemed one of Holmes’ outfits overly malodorous.  
  
I was therefore surprised when Wiggins appeared with a message, requesting I take Holmes “’is posh clothes wot ‘e normally wears.”  I thought Holmes might have been injured, or involved in a fight, but then I recalled his outfit.  I obtained the details from Wiggins, hastily packed a bag and departed.  
  
I found Holmes where Wiggins had said.  
  
“Excellent, Watson,” Holmes said.  “Please call us a cab; I can hardly do so in my current attire.”  
  
I did as requested.  As we journeyed Holmes hastily changed his clothes, rolling his other outfit up and pushing the garments into the bag.  
  
Once we had reached our destination and I had paid the cabbie, Holmes took out his notebook and passed it over to me.  
  
“What do you make of that, Watson?” he asked.  
  
I confessed I could make neither head nor tail of it, since it appeared to be nothing more than columns of letters.  
  
He leant over and ran his fingers down the columns, saying as he did so, “Horse, Cab, Driver.  I have been following cabs all morning to get this information.  Do you notice anything strange?”  
  
I took a second look.  “One cab, with two different horses, yet the same driver.  If one horse were injured a second might be used, but here the first horse is back in harness for the final journey.  It doesn’t make sense.”  
  
“All will shortly be revealed, for here comes Lestrade.”  
  
“Mr Holmes, Dr Watson,” Lestrade greeted us amiably.  “If you are ready, we shall be off.”  
  
Lestrade led us to a courtyard close by, where two of his men were holding an irate cabbie.  A third passed the reins of the horse to Lestrade, and Holmes and I climbed into the cab, where two more of Lestrade’s men were already waiting.  
  
Lestrade said something sounding like “Home time,” and the horse set off.  It made its way unerringly through a maze of small streets and then entered a gateway scarcely wider than the cab.  We were in an even smaller courtyard, at the end of which was another coach guarded by two ruffians.  They did not have time to react before the policemen had overpowered them.  Inside the coach we found a terrified lady.  
  
It appeared the men had been hired to abduct her.  Since it had been essential the horse enter the courtyard without hesitation, they had been forced to swap the cab horse with the one which usually pulled the coach.  And in order to provide the cab horse with an alibi the coach horse had then been put to pulling the cab.  Had it not been for Holmes no-one would even have been aware of the substitution.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Ocelot's Note** It may be felt this is not quite Dr Watson's usual prose. However, due to the publishing contraint of being limited to 500 words, the editor has been forced to cut back on the original submitted document.


End file.
